As foods and drinks containing large amounts of aromatic components of coffee, those produced, for example, according to the concentrated coffee liquid production process indicated in Patent Document No. 1 are known (see below). In this production process, a coffee liquid extracted from roasted and ground coffee beans is first concentrated. At this time, the coffee liquid is separated into a concentrate obtained by partially removing the moisture from the aforementioned coffee liquid, and a concentrated removal liquid containing the moisture removed in the process by which the concentrate is obtained. Next, by concentrating the aforementioned concentrated removal liquid by applying a pressure of 0.98 MPa or less using a reverse osmosis membrane, the aromatic components in the concentrated removal liquid are concentrated to obtain a concentrated aromatic liquid. Finally, the aforementioned concentrated aromatic liquid and the aforementioned concentrate are mixed to prepare a concentrated coffee liquid. A known extraction device and extraction method are used when extracting the aforementioned coffee liquid. As a result, according to this production process, aromatic components lost in the coffee liquid concentration process can be efficiently recovered. In particular, by concentrating the aforementioned concentrated removal liquid at as low a pressure as possible using a reverse osmosis membrane having a high separation capacity, the aromatic components contained in the concentrated removal liquid can be effectively recovered.
However, since a known extraction device and extraction method are used in this production process when extracting coffee liquid, there is a high possibility that numerous aromatic components are lost in the extraction process. Consequently, even if aromatic components are able to be recovered at high efficiency in the subsequent step in which a concentrated aromatic liquid is obtained, the aromatic components that have already been lost cannot be recovered. In particular, since the aromatic components lost during extraction of the aforementioned coffee liquid are extremely volatile and have a unique aroma only possessed by freshly roasted coffee, the development of a technology is sought that is capable of minimizing this loss as much as possible.
The present invention has been achieved by paying attention to these problems present in the prior art. One of the objects of the present invention is to provide a method of extracting volatile components by which volatile components can be recovered from tasty materials both easily and high efficiently. Another object of the present invention is to provide volatile components containing a high proportion of preferable aromatic components contained in tasty materials, and foods and drinks containing those volatile components.    Patent Document No. 1: Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2003-204757